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Buying property in Italy's Abruzzo region

Ambitious projects are breathing new life into this rugged Italian region, but there are lots of more modest ruins to restore.

Karen Robinson

October 26 2008, 1:00am, The Sunday Times

A century ago, 900 people lived the harsh peasant life of Italy's wild Abruzzo hill country in the village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio. By the time Daniele Kihlgren first gunned his motorbike up the winding roads that climb into the Gran Sasso National Park and discovered the medieval stone houses slowly decaying into their warren of narrow stepped alleys, the population had dropped to just 70.

Kihlgren, 42, a scion of a Milanese industrial dynasty who describes himself as a "philosopher" (he never really took to the family cement trade), immediately knew what he had to do: rescue Santo Stefano. "The Italian authorities only want to save the patrimony of Caesars and popes," he laments. But the young millionaire's heart was with the poor…